Olga Davis

Biography

Olga Idriss Davis is passionate about enhancing communication to improve the health and well-being of underserved populations. She helped establish a health coalition for refugee women in Maricopa County and was appointed by Governor Napolitano to serve on the State Commission on Women’s and Children’s Health. In addition, Davis is intricately involved in promoting health among the African American community in Arizona. She works with the Phoenix-based Coalition of Blacks Against Breast Cancer and has created a narrative play, "The Journey: Living Cancer Out Loud," based on interviews of the experience of African American survivors and caregivers of breast cancer which has been performed in various community and hospital venues in Phoenix and Scottsdale. Raising awareness in Black barbershops, Davis addresses knowledge of cardiovascular disease among African American men in Phoenix, Arizona.

Davis, Olga Idriss. Performing (Il)literacy: Redefining the black parental body in the culture of schooling. Once Upon a Time in a Different World Conflicts Controversies and Celebrations in African American Children's Literature (2007).

Olga Davis. Vigilance and Solidarity in the Rhetoric of the Black Press The Tulsa Star. The Journal of Intergroup Relations (2005).

Olga Davis. Snoop Dig and Resurrect What Can Scholars of African American Communication Learn from the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Electronic Journal of Communication NCA sponsored (2003).

Olga Davis. What Have We Not Learned about Diversity in the University. International Communication Association ICA Newsletter (2002).

Olga Davis, J Martinez, T Nakayama. Coloring the Communication Experience Using Personal Narratives to Redefine Success of Students of Color in Communication. Included in Communication Learning Climates that Cultivate Racial and Ethnic Diversity (2002).

Presentations

Davis, O.I. The kitchen legacy: The health experience of Black female slaves in pre-emancipatory America. Johns Hopkins University International Conference on Health in the African Diaspora of the Americas (Jul 2012).

Davis, Olga. "From Stage to Page: Performative Writing as Critical Care in the Pursuit of Creative Scholarship". WSCA Program Panel for the Organization for Research on Women and Communication, Sessions 1 and 2 (Feb 2008).

Davis, O.I. HIV/AIDS in Black faith communities of Phoenix, Arizona. White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives (Jan 2008).